What is the Echo of Galaxy City?

Well concerning badges, it clearly is. And guess what, they plan on doing the same thing with Dark Astoria for the same reason!


Let's see, under your system, we'd pretty much have a badge in Atlas saying: "Nevermind that you're in Atlas Park right now, but over in Galaxy City which no longer exists, there was this guy named Orion who had an entire neighborhood named after him and we put this badge in the middle of Argosy Industrial Park for some reason."

Oh, I can only imagine how you'd reassign the Dark Astoria badges:


Dark Mystic

Some claim the reason the spirits walk the streets of Dark Astoria is the fact that there is a powerful Ley Line nexus in the middle of Moth Cemetery.

Seeker of the Unknown

This tomb is used to represent the thousands of heroes who gave their lives in the Rikti War.

Cairn Warder

This cairn was once the location of a rift to the Netherworld, but has since been closed.

Whisperer on Witchburn Hill

It is rumored that in the dim past of the nation's founding, this hill was the site of witch burning. No official records exist that back up this legend, but even before Astoria fell to darkness this hill in Moth Cemetery was well known for the feelings of unease it elicited in anyone brave enough to scale its flanks. Scaling the steep sides of "Witchburn" hill was a common rite of passage for Astoria teenagers looking to impress their friends, though none could stand to remain on the hilltop for long. Since the fall of Astoria, priests of the Banished Pantheon flock to the locale, using it as a site for dark rituals, further lending some credence to the legend that a malevolent power clings to the place.

Phantom Radio

Since the fall of Astoria, shortwave enthusiasts in Paragon City and beyond have occasionally happened upon strange transmissions of ghostly whispers, wailing pleas, bestial shouts of rage, and haunting voices chanting in dead languages. Those who have heard these grim transmissions nearly always suffer for it; their lives claimed by some unexpected calamity or their minds by a sudden and inexplicable mental illness. M.A.G.I. eventually traced the transmission to this radio tower.

Too Dark Park

In a far corner of the district lies McCraughly Park, a shadowy strip of green that had a dark reputation even before Astoria and its citizens were consumed by evil. Clusters of suicides, strange disappearances, and even a well-publicized multiple murder cast a dark shadow across the park. In the years leading up to the rise of Dark Astoria, the park was largely shunned, but now that the Banished Pantheon have dominion over the district, the park has become a focal point for their evil rituals.

Astoria's Last Stand

As the darkness closed in and the dead rose from their graves, this warehouse became a scene of unimaginable horror as a group of survivors fled here in the hope of rescue that never came. They fought valiantly, keeping the minions of the Banished Pantheon at bay for hours. The forces arrayed at them were too numerous and too powerful to be denied forever and the survivors succumbed along with the rest of Astoria's doomed inhabitants.

The Sleeper Below

Deep beneath the cemetery ziggurat the presence of the slumbering god Mot can be most strongly felt. The Banished Pantheon have longed to awaken the sleeper and so congregate here in large numbers. Treading upon this unhallowed ground you get the definite feeling that something does not want you here, an evil presence that wishes you ill.

...The sheer silliness would be epic.

Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow City of Heroes is a game about freedom of expression and variety of experiences far more so than it is about representing any one theme, topic or genre.

As others have already pointed out, the contacts are missing, so this seems unlikely.

I like that, Chyll. That actually provides a rationale for why the Menders' have created/provided access to this Echo of Galaxy City. It may not be canon, but it'll do quite nicely.



And that was really touching. Very nice. Thanks.

Ah, that also fits into the Menders' stated goals. This is a cool thought, AzureSkyCiel!

Seems unlikely in what way? Seems unlikely that the devs would put Galaxy City back in place looking like this Echo? True, but the point is that the Menders had a reason for doing what they did, not that they ever actually do it. In the weird sorta-static/sorta-not environment of an MMO, the potential is sometimes more important than seeing it realized. (If this is your objection, this would be from the perspective of the player, not the character; the game-system, not the lore.)

Or do you mean this seems unlikely because the contacts (and Brawler) being missing means that it's not actually a real full copy of Galaxy City that could be patched back in. The Echo is a flawed copy. (This would be an objection from the perspective of the character, within the context of the game-world lore, not from the perspective of the player.)

Yeah..... first you jump on someone for allegedly saying something, then you say that they "implied" it.
Not a strong debate tactic.

Actually it was more reading the implication and running to its logical conclusion, then being asked tritely where that conclusion came from and then pointing out where it came from.

But then you're always looking to start ****, aren't you Ironblade?

Yes, I was referring to the idea of it being a "save file", but that is from my perspective as a player. Why would you think otherwise?

For simplicity's sake, I was including BABs, Jack Wolfe, and whoever else might have been there under the umbrella term "contact".

Because when I started the thread, I said what interested me was the lore behind the Echo. I then provided some speculation on how the place might be experienced by characters within the game. Golden Girl noted that she was unaware of any mention of the Echo within game lore, and no one has contradicted that statement since. However, folks have provided really interesting ideas on possible motivations of the Menders for creating or making available this place. That sort of exploration (the meaning of the Echo for the characters who live in Paragon City) really addresses what I am interested in and what prompted me to bring it up.

Thanks, Captain Electric, I really appreciate that.

While I don't really RP, I do think about who my characters are and why they do what they do. I find a lot of room for creativity between what is clearly spelled out in game lore and the "blank pages" not yet bound and codified by canon. The current "openness" of the Echo is fascinating to me.

TY, but thank you more to Pattern. His was the inspiration.

This sounds like a perfect lore reason for the Echo. And all the Echoes to come.

All this talk about explore badges and memorial sites and the perfect lore reason was entirely missed in the battle. The Echo is the ultimate explore marker/memorial site. It's in the game for the same reason as the explore markers or historical plaques. To commemorate something worth remembering.

We never asked for the Echo, and it's totally useless for our regular RP meets because in the game world, Galaxy City is destroyed. We can't just go back to the Echo and pretend it never happened.

We weren't even THAT pissed off at the destruction of Galaxy. We were annoyed at the complete removal of it as a usable zone, making the game smaller and depriving us of a meeting spot we'd used DAILY pretty much since EU launch back in 2005.

As for the game lore... The devs stopped caring about that a long long time ago.

There's an exploration badge on top of the tower that grants the portal to anyone who gets there.

And, unfortunately although we approached the Community Teams and Devs directly with arguments why the Echo didn't work, or at least to get something set up that would make it work better; there was never an answer.

We just got pointed back again and again to the "but you can just use the echo" explanation.

Which is telling the characters "but you can just live in a fantasy time echo in denial of the city around you!".

...Yeah.

----

However, saying all that I really do like both the "Snapshot from the day before" and the "Menders fixing the missing puzzle piece" backgrounds. It makes it a monument to the Galaxy City that was lost.

What it doesn't make though, is a social gathering place (that'd be terribly disrespectful).

But that's a whole other issue.

Which you can only get to by freeloading. That's not earning it.

I agree, nobody asked for it, and I think it was an awkward way to handle the problem.

Do you wait until you've completed an arc that awards Entrusted with the Secret before ever going to Ouroboros? You virtuously avoid entering Ourboros until then? How do you typically earn it?

I know there are a number of paths there, but villainside I typically do Marshal Brass' arc (available at 15) and heroside I do the Faultline arcs. I don't remember what level or which specific contact offers the Entrusted badge in Faultline, but maybe you could lobby the devs to delay make Ouroboros available at 15 instead of 14 redside? That would remove the ache of knowing that others are using underhanded methods to get to Ourboros a level before you could hope to do so by playing in a more honest manner.

Doc Delilah at 20. If you miss that, you can get it from Agent G.

I did ask that the badge be made available in an earlier hero arc.

That was really well written. i think that it would make a great in game explanation of the echo's presence.

Just as a random aside, Too Dark Park is one of my all time favorite albums.

Which is rather silly, because you can only get Agent G if you've done Delilah. They're in the same level bracket of 20 - 24. If you miss Delilah, you miss G too.

You could flashback to either one.

But were we not discussing how to unlock Ouroboros access? I seem to recall that we were. Ergo, it's a bit odd to claim you could go back to do them in Ouroboros when you have to gain access to Ouroboros first when you objected to the exploration badge unlock.

I'm not discussing anything with you. I'm pointing out your mistake.